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Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
NATIONAL Aids Council (Nac) has conceded that it is struggling to come up with specific HIV/Aids interventions for people with hearing and speech disabilities in sign language due to the intricacy and the dialects of the language.
In a presentation during a workshop with journalists in Kwekwe last week, Nac communications director Ms Medelina Dube said sign language had so many dialects which have made it difficult to translate relevant information.
She, however, said Nac had engaged organisations that represent people with hearing and speech disabilities to translate information into sign language that can be followed by everyone.
“It has been a cause for concern when it comes to interventions specifically for people living with disabilities because they say they have no access to adequate HIV and Aids information, particularly the visually impaired and those with hearing impairments. They have for a long time been asking for information. Their presentation to us was that when people are disabled or living with disabilities people think that they are not sexually active or that they cannot fall in love.
For those that are deaf, sign language becomes a challenge because they say it depends on where you learnt and also the one who is interpreting are they doing so in the way you understand.
We have to be careful because you might end up misinforming them when doing translation,” she said.
There are more than 1,8 million people living with disabilities in the country.
The Government recently undertook an exercise to standardise sign language as one of the 16 languages recognised in the constitution.
The Ministry of Justice, legal and Parliamentary Affairs embarked on a programme of translating the constitution into the 16 languages including sign language following the standardisation exercise.
Ms Dube said if possible, Nac could benefit from the standardisation of sign language by Government to come up with comprehensive information, education and communication (IEC) material.
Speaking during the same workshop, Midlands Provincial Aids co-ordinator, Mr Mambewu Shumba said the country had recorded 40 500 new infections last year of which 36 700 were among people between 15 to 49 years.
Mr Shumba said 3 800 was recorded among children between zero to 14 years.
“It is disheartening to note that HIV new infections are rampant among the youths. In total the percentage of new infections is at 0,9 while the overall HIV prevalence in the country is around 13 percent. Midlands contributes 10 percent in the country’s new incidences,” he said.
Mr Shumba said Nac had enhanced its HIV and Aids intervention strategies.
“We have key populations who include men having sex with men, prisoners, male sex workers, sex workers. We have realised that we now have male sex workers in the province although the population is very small. We have enhanced our intervention strategies to reduce new infections,” he said.
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